Life for Rent
by Jack E. Peace
Summary: We all know that Pepper ended up with Erin and her friends, but just how? And why was she down in Mexico in the first place? A short little fic that answer's these questions, told in Pepper's POV.


Disclaimer: None of the characters from the movie belong to me. Everyone else mentioned does. The title comes from the Dido song "Life for Rent." 

A/N: So, as many of you know (or hopefully know) _The Texas Chainsaw Massacre _came out on DVD today and I bought it as soon as I got out of school. But, you don't really care about what I did, now do you? But, anyway, _Texas Chainsaw _is awesome, much better then the original, and so here is a little story (maybe the first of many) about this wonderful movie. Please review and enjoy. 

_My Life is for Rent_. That was what the bumper sticker on his car said; I wandered closer to the beat-up pickup truck and studied the sticker closely, trying to decide what it could possibly have meant. I couldn't exactly put my finger on the true meaning, but I knew it was something deep. This is the sort of guy I needed to hitch a ride from. I looked away from the sticker and peeked over the bed of the truck, looking around for the guy that owned the truck. He had stepped into the gas station when I had arrived, but I couldn't see him now. 

I sighed and paced around toward the front of the truck, wondering if it would be only cooler in the gas station. After hitching all the way from Mexico to El Paso, I understood what Hell must feel like. Whoever said that hitching is a good way to experience the United States is definitely a crack head, that's all I have to say. 

When I told my parents that I didn't want to go to college and preferred to join the Peace Core down in Mexico or some other country near the equator, they basically said 'over our dead bodies.' You see, my parents aren't very worldly people. So, I packed a bag and headed down to Mexico, which wasn't at all like I had expected; somehow, during a three week 'vacation' in that country, I managed to lose everything I owned, except for the clothes on my back, the sweaty cowboy boots that clung to my feet and the ten dollars I had in my wallet. Which was exactly why I was here now, in some nameless gas station in El Paso, waiting for Life for Rent guy to come out of the gas station and do his civic duty and give me a ride. Anywhere would do, anywhere that the temperature didn't get higher then eighty degrees. 

I was doing my best to appear to be interested in the craftsman ship of the gas pumps when the guy came back out of the station. He was younger then I had first thought and pretty cute too, with shaggy blonde hair that fell in curls across his tanned forehead and puppy dog eyes. When he saw me loitering around his truck, he raised an eyebrow and quickened his pace. 

"Can I help you?" He asked, looking over at his truck protectively, as though to make sure I hadn't busted out the taillights or stolen the hubcaps. So he was one of those guys. 

"Do you think you can give me ride out of here?" I asked him, figuring there was no need to beat around the bush. Either he was going to give me a ride or he wasn't and no small talk was going to change that. 

He looked me up in down, taking in my appearance, clinging boots and all and then offered me a crooked smile. "Where are you heading?" He asked, with not hint of Southern drawl at all. At least I didn't have to worry about him being some redneck with a sawed-off shotgun in the back seat of his truck. 

"Anywhere but here." I answered quickly and knew that I had found a ride out of this shit-hole town. What guy was going to refuse a pretty girl with no where to go? Certainly not this guy, because he nodded and gestured toward the passenger side door of the cab. 

I didn't waste any time climbing inside and slamming the door behind me. It was so hot inside the cab that the seats stuck to my thighs the second I sat down; I hoped his truck came with air conditioning. 

He climbed into the cab beside me and started the car up, which didn't sputter in spite of the heat. "I'm Josh." He introduced and waited for me to do likewise. _What the hell? _I thought and told him my name, figuring that if he was being decent enough to give me some relief from the heat he deserved to know my name. "Pepper." He repeated. "Is that your real name?" 

"Yeah." I told him, trying to figure out if he was being serious or not. "Josh is your real name isn't it?" I raised an eyebrow and he didn't say anything. "So, what does your bumper sticker mean?" I asked. 

Josh glanced in the rearview mirror, as though trying to see his bumper to see which sticker I was talking about. I didn't expect the question to be rocket science, there was only one back there. "Whatever you want it to me." He answered finally and I couldn't tell if he really meant that or if he was just saying that because he couldn't remember what the sticker actually side. 

I nodded and stared out the windshield, watching the road bake in front of us; there weren't very many other cars on the road, most people were smart enough not to go out in this heat. I didn't understand how people could live in weather like this all the time. "So, where are you headed?" I questioned after a while, debating whether or not to roll down the window and circulate the air inside the cab. I decided against it, the air was too dusty and humid to be of any use. 

"Just up to Utah." Josh answered. "I've got family up there." 

I nodded again. "Utah." I mused. "Is it hot in Utah?" Maybe that would be a good place to relocate, provided it didn't feel like you were in an oven every time you stepped outside. 

Josh shrugged. So he wasn't much of a talker, oh well, I've had worse conversations. I turned my gaze from the road to the landscape, which was a whole lot of nothing. Rolling, dusty hills, covered with prairie grass every so often. The hills and plains went on for miles on either side of the road, there wasn't a house in sight; not even a cow. 

As I watched the flatness roll past the windows, I thought about what his bumper sticker might mean. _My life is for rent, _I repeated in my head. It could mean that he did whatever came along and didn't think about settling down; the world full of too many interesting things to stay in one place for long. I guess I was sort of like that too, not willing to stay in one place (certainly not Texas) for too long because I often worried about what I was missing somewhere else. At least I know now that there's nothing to miss in Texas or Mexico. 

Pleased with my deduction, I smiled to myself and Josh looked over at me. "What's so funny?" Now it was my turn to shrug. "Do you have any money? For gas or food or anything?" He asked once he saw that I wasn't going to answer his question. 

I nodded. "Yeah, I've got ten dollars." I answered. If he was going to take me all the way to Utah, it was only right that I offered up a couple bucks for gas and a meal every now and again. Come to think of it, I hadn't had a decent thing to eat since I left Mexico two days ago. 

Josh didn't look like he believed me. "Let me see." He commanded. "I want to make sure you're not one of those freeloader, hitching types." He justified. I studied him for a moment before reaching into my left boot and pulling out my wallet, damp with sweat. I showed him the ten dollars and he suggested I keep it in the glove compartment; he looked slightly disgusted that I kept my wallet in my sweaty cowboy boot. 

I did as he suggested, since keeping it down there was uncomfortable anyway, and sighed, leaning my head against the window. I had walked most of the way to El Paso and didn't realize how tired I was until right that second. I closed my eyes; it was easy to fall asleep to the rocking motion of the car. 

* * * 

When I woke up again, it was beginning to grow dark, and I was about to ask Josh where we were now but I realized that I had to pee more then I needed to know where we were. That had been the real reason I had gone over to the gas station, to use their bathroom and that had surely been five hours or more ago and the need to pee was stronger then ever. 

"Hey, Josh, do you think we can stop for a minute?" I asked and I could tell I had surprised him. He had still thought I was sleeping. "I've really got to use the bathroom." 

Josh looked over at me. "Pepper, we're fifteen miles outside of town. Where do you want me to stop?" He sounded a little upset, as though he hadn't expected me to ask such a dumb question. Well, I didn't think it was dumb at all; I had just woken up, how was I supposed to know we were fifteen miles outside of town? 

I considered this but not for long. "You can stop on the side of the road." I suggested. "I've really got to pee." I wrinkled my nose and hoped that he would sense the urgency in my voice. He didn't look like he had, however, but that wasn't really surprising. Boys were awfully dense when it came to sensing emotions. 

With a sigh, Josh pulled over to the shoulder and put on the break. "Hurry up." He grumbled, but I didn't need any prodding. I hopped out of the car and over to the shoulder, getting as far away from the side of the road as I could; good thing it was growing dark, otherwise I would have probably been too self-conscious to actually pee on the side of the road. 

I was pulling up my skirt when I realized that Josh had put the car back into gear and was pulling back onto the road. That was also the same moment I remembered I had left my wallet in his car as well. "Asshole!" I shouted after him, rushing toward the truck, thinking that I might be able to catch him. 

I might have caught up to him, if my cowboy boots, two sizes too large, hadn't tripped me and sent me crashing to the dusty ground. I feel so hard that my teeth knocked together; by the time I looked up again, I could only see the headlights getting farther and farther away. 

"Goddamn him." I cursed under my breath. I climbed to me feet and brushed the dirt off my skirt, sighing. 

With nothing else to do, I started walking along the side of the road, staying off the actual pavement in case some speeding redneck did come a long and ran me over. I had no idea what I was going to do now; I had no money, no map, and it was growing dark and according to Josh, I was fifteen miles outside of town. My feet hurt and I didn't want to walk fifteen miles, in the dark, in Texas with rednecks with shotguns sitting on their porches. Not that there were any porches around here, but that was beside the point. And what were the chances of someone else coming along and picking me up? At least I didn't have any more money for anyone to steal. 

I had been walking around five minutes when someone laid on a car horn behind me, causing me to jump and spin around. I was prepared to shout yet another string of curse words to whatever asshole had decided to attempt to scare me. Instead, I saw that the van that had honked at me was slowing down, perhaps in preparation of offering me a ride. 

The driver's window rolled down and a girl about my age leaned out, stretching across the boy that was actually driving. "Hey, do you need a ride?" She called. "Where are you heading?" She had a cowboy hat on her head that looked so goofy that it had to be a touristy thing. 

Right away, I liked her. She had a gentle face, a soft voice, and she was pretty; mass murderers and wallet steeling jerks were pretty with gentle faces. "I'm going wherever." I called back to her, turning and walking closer to the van. 

It was too dark to see who else was inside, other then the boy she was leaning over, whom I assumed was her boyfriend by the way he made no effort to conceal the way he was staring down her shirt. He also didn't seem to mind the fact that the bill of her hat was poking him in the forehead. She backed up a little and looked at the boy. "Kemp, what do you say?" She questioned. 

"I say hop in babe." Called someone from the back of the van and I tried to peer past the boy the girl had addressed to see who had spoken. There were two more guys in the back, one with dark hair and glasses and a more attractive one with sandy called hair and finely tuned muscles. I hoped he was the one that had spoken. 

The driver nodded his consent and I walked around toward the other side of the van, where the sandy haired boy had already slid open the door and pulled me inside. "Welcome to the love van." He purred in his most seductive voice, which really didn't sound that way at all but I smiled anyway. "I'm Andy and you are?" 

"Pepper." I answered and sat down on the couch next to him. The boy with glasses was studying me, a smile on his face as well; I thought he looked awfully stoned. 

The girl turned around as her boyfriend put the van back in drive. "I'm Erin." She introduced. "Why are you hitching?" She questioned. 

"Because some asshole stole my wallet and I don't have a car." I answered and narrowed my eyes at the memory of Josh. "I just came from Mexico." 

"So did we." Andy informed me. "What a coincidence." He also smiled. 

The boy with glasses decided to come sit on my other side, despite the look Andy shot him. "We're heading to Dallas." He added, simply for the sake of saying something. 

Erin rolled her eyes at glasses boy and said, "Why were you in Mexico?" She was being polite and looked genuinely interested. She was a nice person after all. 

"I was thinking about joining the Peace Core." I answered. "But I didn't want to settle down for too long; I'm a free spirit you know." I informed them, thinking back to the bumper sticker on Josh's truck. "I like to think of my life being for rent." 

Andy looked at me. "What does that mean?" He looked confused. 

I couldn't help but smile; I had never been the sort of girl that said things that made people think. I could tell that they were all waiting for my response, and I felt a little bit in control, though that was a sort of stupid thought. My smile grew wider as I said, "Whatever you want it to mean." 


End file.
